Tuesday, December 27, 2011

The Yankees play in one of the newest ballparks in baseball, but next year they’re going to help celebrate the 100th anniversary of the oldest. They’ll be in Boston to play the Red Sox when Fenway Park turns 100 years old on April 20th, a century after they were in town when the place opened in 1912. Well, technically the New York Highlanders were there in 1912, since they didn’t become the Yankees until 1913.

The Sox will have all sorts of pre-game ceremonies to honor the place before the game, and the impossible to read Fenway Park 100th Anniversary Events site says that both clubs will wear 1912 throwback uniforms during the game. Reports earlier this month indicated that the Yankees had not yet agreed to wearing their old uniforms, but apparently the people at Fenway got the a-okay recently. A second throwback game between the Red Sox and Athletics is still tentative according to the Fenway site. The Yankees have not yet confirmed that they will be wearing the 1912 jerseys during the game, just to be clear.

Aside from various patches and whatnot, the Yankees have been using their current road jerseys since 1918* and their current home uniforms since 1936. The uniform above is the 1912 Highlanders’ outfit they’ll apparently wear during the game in Fenway Park, a rather generic uniform aside from the multi-colored socks.

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This (and what Terpnats was talkign about) are extremely surprising. The Yanks are incredibly resistant to doing stuff like that (sometimes for the better: they avoided the infamous "Turn Ahead the Clock Night" by telling everyone that they WERE wearing their future uniforms).

I knew that same Johnnie Priest back in the 60's and 70's when we used to hang out at the same pool rooms at 14th & Irving in DC and later in Randolph Hills in Rockville. Sweetest guy you'd ever meet, always nattily dressed in his distinctive porkpie hat and perfectly fit suit. I found several pictures of him (both Highlanders and Richmond) in my old Reach guides, took them to a photo shop and had them blown up, and he showed them around to anyone who didn't believe he'd really played in the Majors. I played against at least two future Major Leaguer on the sandlots (Ron Swoboda and Charlie Vinson) and was a teammate of the O's pitching coach / manager Ray Miller, but to this day Johnnie Priest remains the only Major League ballplayer I was ever on a first name basis with. And AFAIC I couldn't have picked a better one, -0.3 career WAR and all.

If the writer meant Fenway is the oldest ballpark in major league baseball, okay. But it's definitely not the oldest ballpark in baseball. Rickwood Field in Birmingham, Alabama is older. I was there for its 100th anniversary celebration in 2010.

If the writer meant Fenway is the oldest ballpark in major league baseball, okay. But it's definitely not the oldest ballpark in baseball. Rickwood Field in Birmingham, Alabama is older. I was there for its 100th anniversary celebration in 2010.

I was always taught that Labatt Park in London, Ontario is the oldest baseball field in the world still in use. Though apparently there's been some dispute over the fact that home plate was moved after a flood in the 1880s, so some park in Mass. has a claim.

It brings to mind the vicious Nottingham pub rivalry between Ye Olde Trip to Jerusalem, which boasts a 1189 opening date and Ye Olde Salutation (which I believe claims 1325, but with better documentation).

It brings to mind the vicious Nottingham pub rivalry between Ye Olde Trip to Jerusalem, which boasts a 1189 opening date and Ye Olde Salutation (which I believe claims 1325, but with better documentation).

Contested, apparently, among people who need to get Ye Olde life and should perhaps consider having a pint of Ye Olde beer.

I believe Pittsfield, MA claims to possess the oldest baseball "grounds" rather than the oldest ballpark. Birmingham claims to possess America's oldest ballpark in continuous use with its original grandstand and in its original location. There are other diamonds that appear to be older but they don't include the original structure. There's Warren Ballpark in Bisbee, AZ. It opened about a year before Rickwood Field but the grandstand is allegedly not the original. Ballparks in Vermont and Rhode Island have similar stories -- they claim an older diamond but the grandstands were rebuilt in later years.